Leonie Haimson includes in this post a summary of the latest Quinnipiac poll about public reaction to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s education proposals. The long and short of it is that they are so unpopular that they have dragged down his overall rating.
28% approve his proposals while 63% reject them.
The Quinnipiac poll shows that Cuomo has dropped to his lowest rating ever–50%, and the poll connects his declining popularity to his ferocious attacks on public schools and teachers. He doesn’t seem to understand that most people like both and can’t understand why the Governor wants to destroy them. They have a low opinion of all his plans to “improve” them by raising the stakes on testing. This should be a warning to other politicians who think they can attack public education without arousing public antagonism. Most Americans–say, 90%–went to public school and presumably have good memories of their teachers and schools. Why would the governor or any other politician want to send public money to private and religious schools?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
YES!!!!
The power of the voters here in NY!
Not surprising. Seems as if our governor is a DINO. He’s certainly not the man his father was.
Well, based on his childish, spiteful behavior toward teachers, one might legitimately ask whether Andrew ever even made the transition to manhood.
What I don’t get is why the Democrats have turned their backs on public schools? I realize there is money in them there hedge fund guys, but enough to willingly alienate so many teachers and parents? From the White House, down to John Legend making robo-calls for a pro-charter guy, to our local school board race, I keep wondering, what’s up with that???
Melissa, follow the money. That’s the fuel of politics.
This is why campaign finance reform IS AN URGENT ISSUE for this nation. Without this the highest bidder buys national policy. Public education is a canary in the goldmine.
Very funny in a dark sort of way
“Canary in a Goldmine”
The Mother Lode’s attracting
The Gates have opened wide
Canary isn’t acting
The public school just died
What I don’t understand about these DINO politicians is that they seem to forget is that generally, many teachers VOTE and are politically active.
By attacking teachers, in my opinion, they are committing political suicide.
They think we’ll continue to vote for them just because they’re better than the alternative. We need to show them they’re wrong.
Yes, it’s why I signed up to become a member of the Green Party.
Frankly, I’ve gotten tired of voting for the lesser of two evils…..
Sadly Cuomo’s true constituency is comprised of the hedge fund millionaires who are his major campaign contributors and invested heavily in charter schools, the publishers who pay him outrageous legal fees, and clueless Bill Gates, who never thinks anything through.
Cuomo’s new line these past few days has been to say that the policy changes he was demanding in the executive budget were just “statements of priorities”.
As many predicted, Cuomo has or will drop most if not all demands he made in January. Expect every single education proposal to be gone, some punted to the Legislature and others, such as revamping teacher evaluations to the Board of Regents (where, surprise!, education policy is supposed to be formulated!)
Also, as many have ventured to guess, it was never about getting major changes to education policies through in the first place, but diverting attention from GEA and Foundation Aid reform and, as I believe, away from ethics reform. Cuomo is willing to trade all of his “statements of priorities” for what amounts to non-reform of ethics, especially any that impact the Executive branch.
Gallup has conducted a public attitude survey annually for decades on what the public thinks of the public schools, and it is obvious that the reformer propaganda has failed to lower the positive attitude the public has for their local schools—but the propaganda has managed to get a majority of the public to think the problems they keep hearing about from that same propaganda must be happening in schools in other communities and states where they never lived.
In other words, about 70% of the public thinks highly of their local schools but less than 20% have a poor opinion of all those other schools outside of their own community.
For instance, someone in California might think the schools in all the other states are horrible while someone in New York is thinking the same thing but not about New York.
The term “failing schools” is a weapon. I have worked in a public school in the south Bronx for almost 20 years. Our students come from poor, often stressed, families. Many are English Language Learners. Most are socially and academically “behind”. And I love seeing them every day. We LOOK like a failing school when you judge us through the prism of standardized testing, but when my kids win the Thurgood Marshall Junior Mock Trial Competition, or come back to tell me about their college experiences, or stare in wonder at the city in which they live but don’t really know while we take them on field trips, or beg me to continue reading To Kill a Mockingbird or Of Mice and Men instead of turning to test prep material, I KNOW we are not a failing school. Eva Moskowitz has chosen our building for her next conquest, and we’ve been told that no matter what we do, “it’s a done deal”. Need a laugh? The vote is scheduled to take place deep in Chinatown! How many of our parents do you think will be able to show up for that? My kids are not failures, no matter how many times they are told so by the VERY PEOPLE WHO RUN THE EDUCATION SYSTEM IN THIS CITY.
It’s humiliating and soul crushing to be a teacher in an inner city school. The people who should be getting accolades for working in such places are beaten down instead. I’ll go to work tomorrow and discuss the symbolism of the objects that Boo Radley leaves in the tree in To Kill a Mockingbird. My kids will ask great questions and make wonderful observations. Many of them will score poorly on the ELA exam in 2 weeks. They, and I, will be labeled failures. It’s so very, very sad.
My kids went to public schools. We live in an excellent school district and I gladly pay my taxes to keep it that way. I do not want to pay my taxes so that someone else’s kids can go to a private or parochial school – their kids can go to the same public schools that mine did. Why should I pay for them to get special privileges? If they are not happy with the schools here, move or pay out of pocket.
Ellen #NotOnMyDime
Flos56: my view is the same. Anyone can choose to go to a private or religious school as long as they pay for it themselves. Public money is for public schools.